Ray Kurzweil Responds to “Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain” | KurzweilAI
I’ll be posting a secular monastic take on Kurzweil’s 2005 book The Singularity is Near soon. Ray Kurzweil Responds to “Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain” | KurzweilAI.
The Future We Deserve – Blogathon
Shaun Chamberlin‘s submission for the Future We Deserve explores the experience of the individual in community, and predicts the demise of “passive individualism.” Because we risk losing our grasp of “the concept of a community holding an artist safe while he or she explores the wilder reaches of individual expression,” individuals lack the support they […]
The (simultaneous) rise and fall of western monasticism
Also from Dr. Armstrong’s Re-Monking post: Between 1978 and 2004—nearly the entire span of John Paul II’s pontificate—the number of men in [Western] monastic and religious orders (not including priests) decreased by 46% in Europe and 30% in the Americas, while the number of women decreased by 39% and 27%, respectively. Compare this to the […]
“in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden, and unconscious grow up through the common”
[First in the series Everyday Monasticism] I’ve been seeing this in various places recently: “To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, to think quietly, talk gently, act grandly; to listen to the stars […]
More from “Re-monking”
After reading Re-Monking the Church: new monasticism (see my previous post), I sent Dr. Armstrong the following note on his “Ask Dr. Church History” page: I just finished reading your fantastic article “Re-Monking the Church: new monasticism.” A question: In your mind, what does the secular world have to learn from monasticism? I think the […]
“no hour without its pleasure”
[First in the series Art Monasticism] And the artist, even if he does not amuse the public, amuses himself; so that there will always be one man the happier for his vigils. This is the practical side of art: its inexpugnable fortress for the true practitioner. The direct returns—the wages of the trade—are small, but the […]
“Re-monking”: What can secular monastics learn from Christian “New Monasticism”?
In “Re-Monking the Church: new monasticism“, Dr. Chris Armstrong (author of the book Patron Saints for Postmoderns) asks: Can Western monasticism’s “father,” Benedict, still give us an antidote to cultural compromise? His question is inspired by the words of historian Mark Noll: “For over a millennium, in the centuries between the reign of Constantine and the Protestant Reformation, almost […]
More on “5 Leadership Secrets of a Trappist Monk”
A comment by someone named “elizdelphi” on the Washington Post page for the “5 Leadership Secrets of a Trappist Monk” caught my attention, even before I read the article (I wonder how often I scan comments before reading an article online, and what this says about me): As a Secular member of the Carmelite Order, which […]
Female Artmonks vs. Artnuns
My monastic community, the Art Monastery in Labro, Italy is open to people of all religious beliefs, races, ethnicities, ages, genders, sexes, creeds, sexual orientations, financial situations and contemplative experience levels. We’re men and women, and we call ourselves “artmonks.” Occasionally, we wonder if that’s what we should really call ourselves, and the conversation always […]
Five leadership secrets of the Trappist monk, in the Washington Post
Meath Conlan posted a July 14th Washington Post article that comes close to the point of In Otherhood, learning from monastic tradition. Head over to Conlan’s blog to read “5 leadership secrets of the Trappist monk,” by Stephen Martin. Trappist monks, Martin points out, are some of the best social entrepreneurs on the planet. It is […]
